2007, Piran, Slovenia

Personal protective equipment
Invited presentation
USING A FLAME MANIKIN TO ENSURE SAFETY AND
ENHANCE OPERATIONAL CAPABILITY IN MILITARY,
INDUSTRIAL AND RESCUE SERVICES
Jim House 1 & Igor Mekjavic 2
1
Flaming Hot Physiology Limited, Gosport, UK
2
Institute Jozef Stefan, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Contact person: Jim House jim@flaming-hot-physiology.co.uk
INTRODUCTION
Fire is a natural hazard in the home, in many industries, and increasingly during
military conflict. For those routinely exposed to fire, such as fire fighters, flame
resistant (or retardant) (FR) clothing is provided. For others, particularly military
personnel, the risk from flame exposure is less clear, and the requirements for flame
protection often competing against other technical requirements of clothing. This
paper gives examples of how flame manikin testing systems can be used to quantify
the protective effects of clothing in terms of survivability, and how the information
can help to develop appropriate equipment and policies for those at risk.
METHODS
A flame manikin is a system by which clothing and personal equipment can be
exposed to a standardised gas flame challenge (80 kW.m 2 ) for exact time periods
(usually between 1-10 seconds). The manikin is instrumented with at least 100
thermocouples embedded in copper discs of known mass distributed across the
surface of the manikin. During a flame exposure, and for some time immediately
afterwards, heat reaching the manikin surface (‘skin’) causes an increase in
temperature in the copper disc, and this data is recorded every 0.5 seconds. The
temperature data is used to calculate heat flux, which is then compared to models of
human skin burns to determine if any burn injuries were likely to have occurred. The
skin burn models allow the prediction of burns and their severity (first (1°), second
(2°) or third (3°) degree) 2 and the flame manikin test results are presented as total
body surface area (TBSA) with a predicted 1°, 2° or 3° burn injury (%). As heat
transfer through clothing can occur after the gas flames have ceased, and burning
clothing causes significant injury, the temperature data is captured for specific periods
of time after the flame challenge, such that the total data collection period is usually
60 seconds or 120 seconds. Usually, flame tests are conducted over a range of flame
exposures with repeats of each test to evaluate the reproducibility of the results. There
are a variety of flame testing systems available in North America and Europe to
conduct such testing in accordance with a draft international standard (prISO 13506,
2004). An example of a flame manikin system and the flame challenge given to the
clothing ensembles, are illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 respectively (‘Bernie’, Institute
Jozef Stefan, Slovenia).
2 This terminology for burn injuries has been superseded in medicine, but remains in flame testing. 1°
relates to erythema (such as sunburn) which is painful but with minor damage that heals without
treatment in a few days. 2° relates to partial thickness burns where the skin is partially destroyed and
results in blistering and is very painful but with no permanent scarring. 3° is now described as full
thickness burns where the skin is totally destroyed and skin grafting required. These burns can be less
painful than partial thickness burns, as the pain receptors in the skin will have been destroyed.
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